What is an Icaro?

I first went to the Amazons of Peru in 2018, searching for someone who could help guide me after I had a series of mind-expanding spiritual experiences using large doses of psilocybin. What I encountered in the jungle was much more than just trying the medicinal psychedelic brew known as ayahuasca, but is an entire science with thousands of years of collected experience of using nature to heal the body, mind, and soul. The first time I heard an Icaro coming from Maestro Henrique, it was mesmerizing. The depth of emotions coming out of his body twisted and forced their way into my ears and down into my body. I was engulfed by a presence I had never felt before. I knew intuitively, that this song was an intelligence of its own, coursing through my veins. 

Doctors of Shipibo plant medicine or more known as “shamans,” gain their knowledge and skills through a process called “dieta.” Dieta is the process of developing relationships with several plants and trees that all hold a type of super intelligence/spirit in which we humans can communicate, learn, and assimilate into our system. This process is how the Shipibo doctors acquire Icaros. 

Icaros:

Icaros is a type of vibrational medicine downloaded from plant intelligence into the mind and throat of a Shipibo doctor. These melodies have a trance like feeling to them. The doctor does not choose how or when to sing these melodies. They come out all on their own when the doctor has connected to his “dieta” through drinking ayahuasca. Icaro also has a visual component to them. The Shipibo would see these geometric lines in their minds as a vision that went along with their melodies. These geometric patterns also resemble the patterns in plants when looked at under a microscope.

For most of us, when we take a psychedelic, we are being taken for a ride with seemingly no control over our experience. However, this is not true for Shipibo doctors. Because Shipibo have gone through the dieting process, they become more like conductors of their experience. When they are under the influence of psychedelic medicine, they can call forth the individual intelligence attached to the different plants and tree the doctor has acquired over his lifetime. The Icaro becomes a vehicle for transmission of this intelligence from the plants through the doctors and then given to the patients. Here is a video of two maestros singing icaros together accompanied by a student. - Icaro 1

When the doctor is focused and engaged with their medicine, icaros will come naturally out of their mouths when it is called for, manifesting the power and intelligence of nature into the room where the ayahuasca ceremony is being held. This intelligence can then heal the patients that are participating in the ceremony. Some patients will experience spiritual surgeries, others will purge intensely, and others will be taken to different dimensions through time and space. Each Icaro has a purpose and can be sung in the mother tongue of the practitioner. 

Final thoughts:

When we are looking to invest our time and money into a Shipibo-based ayahuasca retreat, 

we are being healed by the plants that are attached to the “shaman” who is running the retreat. That is a very important distinction between working with a guide or facilitator and working with a legitimate plant doctor. Anytime you want to invest your time, money, and health into a retreat, make sure you ask if the shaman in charge is well-dieted. Ask the organizers if the shaman has icaros that he will be singing. If they do not offer a shaman that will be singing icaros, be very wary of going to that retreat, especially when working with ayahuasca. 

As a westerner trained in shipibo medicine, I can see the pitfalls of the west starting to appropriate plant medicine culture without the proper education and knowledge to support it. Very soon, we will see many ayahuasca offerings throughout the United States and Europe without properly trained doctors who know how to handle such power. I hope to offer my knowledge and invite anyone who feels called to healing work should come visit the amazons and participate in the dieting process so that you can safely, and effectively help others in your community with this amazing medicine.